How to cost a postdoc on a UK research grant

The short answer

Cost the postdoc at a point on your university's pay spine, add one increment a year up to the top of their grade's normal range, and add the employer's on-costs: National Insurance at 15 percent of pay above £5,000 a year, the pension contribution (14.5 percent for USS) and the 0.5 percent apprenticeship levy. In 2026 to 2027 that turns a salary of £39,560 into a cost of about £50,700 a year.

For UKRI, put everything in at current prices: include increments, but do not add future pay awards or inflation, because UKRI adds indexation itself when it makes the award.

The pay spine and postdoc grades

Almost every UK university pays its staff from the national single pay spine, set by the higher education Framework Agreement of 2003, which runs to point 51. Each university draws its own grades from the spine, so the same job can sit on different points at different universities, and a few, such as Bristol, run local scales instead.

A postdoc is usually appointed as a research associate or research fellow. At York, a research associate is grade 6, spine points 29 to 36 with two contribution points above, and a research fellow is grade 7, points 36 to 43 with two above. The national pay award moves every spine point each 1 August; from 1 August 2026 the 2 percent award puts point 29 at £38,448, point 30 at £39,560 and point 36 at £46,970.

Increments

Staff move up one spine point a year until they reach the top of their grade's normal range. The Framework Agreement gives staff "a normal expectation of annual progression up to the contribution threshold for their grade", and leaves the detail to each university. The points above that threshold are contribution points, awarded for performance rather than service, so do not cost them as automatic.

The date varies. At Exeter, increments are paid on 1 August after at least six months in the grade, so someone who starts on or after 2 February waits until the August of the following year. At Essex, grades 1 to 6 move on 1 August and grades 7 and above on 1 October. A grant rarely starts on an increment date, so the first year usually has two rates in it, which is why Sussex asks applicants to cost with the dates of increments and pay awards rather than by project year.

Pay awards

The national pay award is negotiated each year between UCEA, for the employers, and the unions, and takes effect on 1 August. For 2025 to 2026 it was 1.4 percent. For 2026 to 2027 UCEA's final offer was 2 percent; the unions rejected it, and in October 2026 UCEA advised universities to pay it, so it is being paid backdated to 1 August 2026.

Whether to include future awards in a costing depends on the funder. UKRI says not to, and most university costing policies follow the funder.

Employer on-costs

On-costs are what the university pays on top of salary, and on a grant they are part of the staff cost, not an extra. Three apply to almost every postdoc.

Some research staff are in the Local Government Pension Scheme instead of USS, where each university has its own employer rate, set by the 2025 valuation for 2026 to 2029. Your finance office will use the rate for the scheme the post is in.

What UKRI asks for

UKRI asks for all costs at current prices. Its guidance on including costs says: "Do not include inflation, this is applied with an automatic indexation calculation." The councils say the same about pay: EPSRC and STFC ask you to take increments into account but not to anticipate future pay awards, and MRC adds that if a pay revision is still pending you cost on the present pay structure.

UKRI then adds indexation to the award, which EPSRC describes as an amount added "to take some account of expected pay awards and inflation". It reviews the rate each year, and its 2026 report on research financial sustainability says it raised the rate to 2.48 percent, from 0.81 percent. On a UKRI grant the staff cost goes in at 100 percent of the full economic cost, and UKRI usually pays 80 percent of it; how that works is in our post on UKRI full economic costing.

Horizon Europe works differently: it reimburses the personnel costs actually incurred, at a daily rate of annual personnel costs divided by 215, so the budget is an estimate of what you will really pay. That is set out in our post on Horizon Europe personnel costs.

A worked example

A full-time postdoc on a three-year UKRI grant running from October 2026 to September 2029, appointed at spine point 30, with an increment each 1 August and USS as the pension. Everything is at 2026 to 2027 prices, as UKRI asks, so each year differs only by its increment. The figures are rounded to the pound.

The on-costs add 28 percent to the salary here. The increment in the first August is due because the postdoc has more than six months in the grade by then, under a rule like Exeter's; at a university with a different increment date, the split between years moves.

Common mistakes

• Costing salary only, without National Insurance, pension and the levy
• Costing every year at the starting point, with no increments
• Adding a pay award or inflation to a UKRI costing, which UKRI adds itself
• Assuming contribution points above the normal range are automatic
• Costing by project year when increments and pay awards fall on 1 August
• Using last year's spine after 1 August, or last year's National Insurance threshold after 6 April
• Costing an unnamed post above the bottom of its grade without a reason; some universities, such as Keele, cost it at the bottom

Where AllocBoard fits

A costing done once for a bid is a spreadsheet job. Keeping it true for every person across every grant, as increments land and pay awards are paid, is where spreadsheets give out, and it is what AllocBoard is built for:

• Roles with grade-based pay scales, which AllocBoard uses to calculate salary costs across projects
• Placeholder staff and budget simulation for a bid, with costs that move as you change the plan
• Person-month allocations per person, per project and per month, so a part-time postdoc is costed at their share
• Budget forecasting that projects each grant's final spend, so a costing that has drifted shows before the money runs out
• A free 30-day trial with every feature switched on and no credit card

Sources

This post summarises the published rules and rates. It is not financial advice: your university's research finance office costs the application, and its own pay scales and policies have the final word. Rates change, most often on 1 August and 6 April.

• UCEA, Framework Agreement for the Modernisation of Pay Structures (JNCHES, 2003)

• UCEA, 2026-27 New JNCHES pay round

• UCEA, news release, 18 May 2026

• Loughborough University, Implementation of annual pay uplift 2025-26 (20 August 2025)

• University of York, Pay scales, grades 1 to 8, effective from 1 August 2026

• University of York, Job descriptions: research grades

• University of Exeter, Grading structure, August 2026

• University of Exeter, Progression points

• University of Essex, Salary scales

• University of Sussex, Costing your research

• University of Glasgow, Single pay spine, August 2025, with on-costs

• Keele University, Policy for pre-award costing and pricing, version 1.1, 2023

• University of Bristol, A to L salary scales

• GOV.UK, Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027

• GOV.UK, Pay Apprenticeship Levy

• USS, What you pay and what you get is changing (December 2023)

• USS, 2026 valuation

• Loughborough University, Local Government Pension Scheme valuation (April 2026)

• UKRI, How to include costs in your application (updated 17 July 2026)

• EPSRC, Directly allocated costs (updated 7 May 2026)

• STFC, Researcher posts (updated 26 January 2026)

• MRC, Application and policy guide for the UKRI Funding Service (updated 19 January 2026): salary costs

• UKRI, Research financial sustainability interventions 2026 (3 September 2026)

• European Commission, EU Grants AGA, Annotated Grant Agreement, version 2.0, 1 April 2025: Article 6.2.A.1 employees